To Swimfinity And Beyond

June 25, 2010 11:26 AM

Take a swim in the Infinity Pool, at the Marina Bay Sands Sky Park. The Sky Park has rooftop restaurants, nightclubs, gardens, trees, plants, and a public observatory with 360-degree views of the Singapore skyline. The Infinity Pool is the world's longest elevated swimming pool, with a 475-foot vanishing edge, 200 meters (55 stories) above the ground.
posted by mattdidthat (48 comments total)

This pool will be utterly filled with turds each day. They should've thought that through...
posted by lattiboy at 11:30 AM on June 25, 2010 [3 favorites]

Wow. Just wow.

If ever there was a building with the potential to combat the Crimson Permanent Assurance, it is this.
posted by mannequito at 11:31 AM on June 25, 2010 [12 favorites]

To a person terrified of heights, even looking at the pictures of the pool is shudder- and gasp-inducing.
posted by a small part of the world at 11:36 AM on June 25, 2010 [4 favorites]

This building reminds me a little of the design of the giant spaceship in Wall-E. There's probably some form of social commentary that can be made based on that.
posted by wabbittwax at 11:36 AM on June 25, 2010

It's at moments like this that I realize that every minute I spend looking at pictures of exotic pools on the Internet is a minute I'm not spending working towards getting my life to an exotic pool.
posted by bicyclefish at 11:37 AM on June 25, 2010

also, with both a fear of heights and a fear of water, this pool, it's not for me.
posted by wabbittwax at 11:37 AM on June 25, 2010

It looks like they installed a banana-shaped cruise ship on top of that building.
posted by mullacc at 11:37 AM on June 25, 2010 [7 favorites]

Wow, I like heights, rock climb, and frequently go up to cliff edges...but the though of floating on that thing in an inflatable raft terrifies me.
posted by ghharr at 11:38 AM on June 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

When and why did infinity pools become a Thing? I don't get what the big deal is with them.
posted by something something at 11:39 AM on June 25, 2010

When and why did infinity pools become a Thing? I don't get what the big deal is with them.

Well they are pretty to look at, especially at night.
posted by wabbittwax at 11:42 AM on June 25, 2010

Eh.
posted by something something at 11:43 AM on June 25, 2010

Dude they're infinite. Duh.
posted by Babblesort at 11:43 AM on June 25, 2010

I want to go to there.
posted by Navelgazer at 11:43 AM on June 25, 2010 [3 favorites]

err. dudette.
posted by Babblesort at 11:44 AM on June 25, 2010

I love swimming and weird architecture but this pool in the sky scares the shit out of me! I feel the need to pull all those people away from the edge! I assume there are safeguards against the 200-M vertical freestyle, but yikes, it sure looks like you could just flop up and out...
posted by Mister_A at 11:49 AM on June 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

It costs 50 Pounds to get in to the casino?! Bet they don't have penny slots in there...
posted by backseatpilot at 11:50 AM on June 25, 2010

Oh wait it's OK there's a narrow catchment that will recycle you if you fall out. Whew!
posted by Mister_A at 11:51 AM on June 25, 2010 [4 favorites]

Are there any examples of infinity pools in public U.S. resorts? I am wondering because typically, U.S. health and safety codes require bullnose edging around the perimeter of the pool. This of course varies by jurisdiction, but the codes are usually modeled on one set of standards.

You see infinity pools (and other very cool or unorthodox designs) in private clubs and residences here because they are not bound by the same codes that publicly accessible facilities have. Public facilities in many non-U.S. countries are also little regulated, so you see a lot of cool, funky, fun design in overseas resorts.
posted by Xoebe at 11:56 AM on June 25, 2010

Best place to swim in Singapore!
posted by superwilson at 12:01 PM on June 25, 2010

This picture looks exactly like something from the Usborne Book of the Future and it's awesome that this building is real.

Fuck all the haters, this is 2010.
posted by Spacelegoman at 12:02 PM on June 25, 2010 [4 favorites]

It's funny how the cantilever doesn't even look very impressive. The 67m cantilever.
posted by smackfu at 12:03 PM on June 25, 2010

Ahhh get out of my head. I just watched a show on the Science Channel last night about them building this property. Now it's here on MeFi. Too much Baader-Meinhof phenomenon lately.
posted by msbutah at 12:09 PM on June 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

Brings to mind the swimming hole at the edge of Victoria falls.

Previously
posted by cosmac at 12:15 PM on June 25, 2010 [6 favorites]

Yeah, I can't see it as anything other than a ship that got stuck on top of a set of buildings in a cartoonish fashion.
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 12:16 PM on June 25, 2010

One of my very-hot-weather rituals is to get this book from the library and browse it, though I do not have a swimming pool and probably never will. A pool is a hole in the ground that swallows your money, and the author focuses on the higher-end owners.

I'm not even particularly crazy about swimming (chlorine hurts my eyes). I also had a phobia about drains as a kid.

It's just pleasant to contemplate these expanses of cool water on a hot day.
posted by bad grammar at 12:20 PM on June 25, 2010

err. dudette.

IMAO, "dude," like Tibetan given names, transcends gender.
posted by elizardbits at 12:24 PM on June 25, 2010

Also, that pool looks awesome but gives me the heebie jeebies something fierce.
posted by elizardbits at 12:25 PM on June 25, 2010

Welcome to our ppool!

Notice the extra 'p' in 'pool'?

That's from all the terror.

posted by Atom Eyes at 12:28 PM on June 25, 2010 [12 favorites]

Wow, the US's skyscrapers seem to be quickly becoming more utilitarian and lame with time compared to what's being created elsewhere. Aerial adventures in US architecture makes me think of hole-in-the-wall gift shops and a tiny observatory with 8-foot chain link fencing.
posted by crapmatic at 12:29 PM on June 25, 2010

The new CityCenter in Las Vegas is pretty impressive.
posted by smackfu at 12:43 PM on June 25, 2010

It looks nice enough from above, and dramatic from poolside, but the hotel is really ugly from the ground.
posted by Steakfrites at 12:53 PM on June 25, 2010

wowzers.

30+ years ago, swimming in a comparatively minuscule rooftop pool in Singapore that had zero view of the skyline, because it was surrounded by the restaurant/bar, it gave me the heebie jeebies thinking of how much a pool full of water weighs, and how high up I was.

What's next, a glass-bottom version? Actually, that would be kind of cool. I wonder if you can flood that walkway thingy over the Grand Canyon? =p
posted by nomisxid at 1:01 PM on June 25, 2010

There was an episode of the Science Channel show Build It Bigger on the making of this project. Worth seeing. I saw the show, but never the finished project.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 1:13 PM on June 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

I want to be rich so badly. So badly.
posted by anniecat at 1:27 PM on June 25, 2010

thats really neat. Now can we get back to fixing the global economy?
posted by Fupped Duck at 1:35 PM on June 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

Finally, a place for Godzilla to do his ironing.
posted by orme at 1:44 PM on June 25, 2010 [10 favorites]

I bet it's windy as hell up there.
posted by jefbla at 1:47 PM on June 25, 2010

There was an episode of the Science Channel show Build It Bigger on the making of this project.

Yeah, I saw that too. I was particularly impressed that they lifted the entire bridge sections between the towers in one piece from the ground.

(As an aside, it's interesting how a lot of the documentaries that are out there now on Science Channel and NatGeo are really the best and only documentation of the subject that exists. An hour long doc has a ton of info dumbed down to a layman's level.)
posted by smackfu at 1:57 PM on June 25, 2010

I'm reminded of William Gibson's Singapore visit:

Singapore is a relentlessly G-rated experience, micromanaged by a state that has the look and feel of a very large corporation. If IBM had ever bothered to actually possess a physical country, that country might have had a lot in common with Singapore.

There is no slack in Singapore. Imagine an Asian version of Zurich operating as an offshore capsule at the foot of Malaysia; an affluent microcosm whose citizens inhabit something that feels like, well, Disneyland. Disneyland with the death penalty.
posted by papafrita at 2:03 PM on June 25, 2010

Prior art?
posted by Evilspork at 2:40 PM on June 25, 2010

After looking at pictures of the pool, I want to go outside, lie flat on the ground, and clutch the grass, all to reassure myself that I'm not currently falling. *shudder*
posted by epj at 2:47 PM on June 25, 2010

It costs 50 Pounds to get in to the casino?! Bet they don't have penny slots in there...

And they've been averaging 25,000 visitors a day. That's 1.25 million pounds a day in entry fees alone.
posted by rocket88 at 3:21 PM on June 25, 2010

Looks like a floppy boat on a pile of blocks.
posted by delmoi at 4:02 PM on June 25, 2010

The structure looks like Stonehenge crossed with the Love Boat.
posted by SPrintF at 6:29 PM on June 25, 2010 [2 favorites]

Fuck all the haters, this is 2010.

Yes, I know. You see, I live on Key West. And my swimming pool is ocean. Here in the future, it has turned into an infinity pool of death out there somewhere.

New iPhone? No. I want live fish turtles crabs birds and dolphins.
posted by Mike Mongo at 8:08 PM on June 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

It costs 50 Pounds to get in to the casino?! Bet they don't have penny slots in there...

Only for the local Singaporeans. Flash your non-Singaporean passport and you can get in free.
posted by Alnedra at 8:43 PM on June 25, 2010

Somebody's using Bruce McCall drawings as blueprints ?!??
posted by AsYouKnow Bob at 9:10 PM on June 25, 2010 [1 favorite]

Are there any examples of infinity pools in public U.S. resorts?

I'm not sure what you mean by "public", but there is an infinity pool at the Wilderness Resort in the Wisconsin Dells. You have to pay to stay there, of course, but it's not a members-only situation.

Not nearly as impressive as the one in the post, but it was the first I'd ever seen, and was pretty neat. Got the willies when I got close to the edge, even though going over would have meant about a ten-foot fall into some rocks, not certain death.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 9:48 AM on June 26, 2010